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Name: William Arcus
Nickname: The Revenant
Eye Color: Burning Coal
Height: 5” 11"
Level– 11
History:
William was born in the distant nation of Amra, where he was raised to be a woodsman like his father before him. He grew up and married, and led a simple but happy life until the mercenary army of Kal’Necroth took everything from him. His pregnant wife Rebecca was murdered and his home put to the torch. He fought back but found that one man was no match for an army. Captured, William was brought before Kal’Necroth who used the ancient soul magic of Amra to tear his soul out and merge it with two primal spirits, one of creation and one of destruction. The destructive spirit filled William with power but consumed his body while the creation spirit bolstered his strength and speed and regenerated all the damage that was done to him. Transformed into a living weapon, William was used by Kal’Necroth to wage war against the rightful rulers of Amra but was seemingly killed on the steps of the Grand Temple of Leon in the city of Illium by the High General of Amra, James Alexander. With Kal’Necroth and his generals thinking William weakened by his near death experience, the revenant was able to overpower his captors and escape, killing the man who had ruined his life in the process. Or so he thought.
William wandered, for an unknown length of time, travelling from port city to port city far from his nation of birth. Vast swaths of his memory from this time have been lost to the berserker rages that he was prone to falling into. William’s wanderings finally came to a halt when he came to Corone, where he encountered Sei Orlouge, who helped him learn to control his destructive power. Deciding to make a new life for himself, William headed to Scara Brae where he found himself embattled in an ancient curse that had been placed upon the island’s capitol by a goblin shaman. Serving himself up as the vessel to house the shaman’s power, William’s soul had another addition bound to it. Though he was ever prevented from learning the arts of magic, William had been made Captain of the Scarabrian guard and Knight Provost of their army. It was at that point that Sei found out that William was one of the prophesied generals of the army he was forming, the Ixian Knights, and sought William out to induct him.
Since then, William’s destructive power has been built up and honed by Sei, who has seen William as the perfect killing tool and assigned him as the Ixian Knight’s monster hunter, a job William has excelled in. William has trained with multiple combat masters and has learned to manifest his inner rage in the same manner as a monk. He also passed the test of Icehenge and was given the ability to see the weak points in all things, though he can’t turn it off which makes it arguable whether it is a blessing or a curse. Through it all, William’s destructive power was fostered and grown until the air around him burns with the heat of it.
Then came the day when William was ambushed by an acolyte of Kal’Necroth’s who had tracked him down. Turning the tables of the acolyte, who hadn’t expected William to be so strong, William learned that Kal’Necroth was still alive. William was troubled by this, but reluctant to leave the Ixian Knights. With Kal’Necroth fresh in his mind, William began to realize that Sei and the Amran soul mage were essentially the same. Both had fostered him as a living weapon to use at the head of their personal armies. Angry and frustrated that Sei had not done as promised and helped William to regain his humanity, having instead pushed it farther and farther back to make William stronger, William plotted his revenge.
When Cassandra Remi approached him with an offer to betray Sei, William accepted, no longer willing to act as just another tool to aid Sei in his pursuit of power and self-glorification. Following the so-called Night of Debauchery, William departed Corone on a long journey back to Amra to find the remnants of his creator’s power. He made a discovery there and has returned to Althanas with a new purpose.
In Amra, William discovered the Kasheol, an ancient soul mage who had been bound into a statue in punishment from a long forgotten crime. Kasheol offered to teach William what she knew about pneumancy (soul magic) if William allowed her statue to travel with him. William relented and has been learning from her, even though he can’t use pneumancy himself. William also found himself caring for Lyre, an idiot man with a talent for music and keeping things clean. William also made the acquaintance of the mysterious Keeper, who helped him finish the translations of Kal’Necroth’s tome which William has carried since his initial departure. Fortunes have finally begun to change for the Revenant.
Since returning to Althanas, William has focused mainly on his pursuit of his newest prey, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Learning that his war form is connected to the titular Horseman and that he already had part of their power within him, William has started his hunt to claim the soul fragments from the other three.
Appearance:
After learning how to completely control the transformation between his different forms, William has learned to tap into the plethora of souls within him (see Soul Trap below). Drawing on those souls allows William to assume the form of anyone whose soul he has consumed, meaning that he can appear as anyone or anything he has ever killed. William has killed so many people that he can essentially transform into a body of any age, race, or gender. William can also appear in a variety of monstrous forms, though he cannot gain or lose a significant amount of mass and is thus limited to things he has killed which are roughly the same size as himself.
Primarily, William continues to adopt the appearance that he held in his human like. In this form, William appears an athletic man, tanned and muscular from his years spent working in the woods. He keeps his coarse black hair short and perpetually bears the dark shadow of two days growth of facial hair. Even when he is acting jovial, there is a shark-like quality to his grin and a gleam of dangerous intent in his eyes, eyes which constantly burn like cooking coals when he’s not concentrating.
William has long since left his humanity behind and though he may often keep his human disguise up to pass as a normal mortal, William’s true form is a molten conglomeration of souls that burns with collected power. When in this form, William’s body swells and grows half a foot in height and his human fa�ade fully burns away and he appears as a being of brightly burning energy compressed into a humanoid form. The skin of this body shines like a lit coal, burning so brightly that it is almost white-hot. Twisting veins of red, yellow, and orange snake beneath the surface of his skin where his power of his molten core flows close to the surface.
In this form, dark carapace like charcoal covers William’s arms from his elbows down to his fingertips, ending in wickedly sharp claws. This carapace covers his legs from his knees to his toes, which also end in pointed, razor-sharp talons. Finally, carapace also covers his head in a skull-like helmet with sharp, fanged bladed teeth. His eyes smolder like burning coals in the skull sockets.
William wears a dark metal breastplate and a thick leather cloak at all times. The breastplate is enchanted to allow it to adjust to his different forms. William possesses a small gold trinket in the shape of a dragon’s eye that he keeps fixed on the center of his breastplate that allows him to create an illusion at will to alter the clothing appearance of what he’s wearing when he changes forms.
Personality:
William generally remains stoic and humorless in the best of situations. Though he may try to be friendly when the situation demands, it always comes off as unsettling and slightly wrong, as if he is only mimicking social human interaction. Though he is more in control of his emotions now, he is still prone to violent mood swings, which almost always tend towards anger. This leaves those around him with the impression that he is a short fuse waiting to ignite at a moment’s notice. There is a feral hunger gleaming in the back of his eyes.
Skills:
Martial Combat: William, having lived a life engaged in constant warfare, has supplemented his own natural fighting abilities with training from a variety of masters. His natural prowess, training, and experience coupled with his physical abilities has made him a legendary fighter and one of the most skilled hand-to-hand combatants in the world.
Weaponry: William’s nature as a creature of destruction allows him to inherently understand the most proficient way to wield any weapon he picks up. William has become a master of armed melee combat in all its forms.
Carapace Defense: William has mastered the art of turning aside and deflecting attacks made against him with the hard bone carapace that covers his arms and legs.
Woodcraft: William’s human life revolved around his profession as a forester. He knows the best, most efficient method of bringing down trees, hauling them, and rendering them into usable components. Though his skills are a bit rusty, he is competent enough to work as a professional logger, carpenter, and craftsman.
Well Read: While William may seem like an uneducated brute, and is treated as such by most who deal with him, the months he spent reading through a library’s worth of all manner of books in his quest to find a translation for the Tome of Kal’Necroth haven’t been for nothing. William is quite well read and at least somewhat knowledgeable on a wide array of topics.
Abilities:
All-Tongue: Gained during his time in the Plane of Undeath. William’s speech now sounds like the listener's native tongue and accent, which means he now speaks all languages. Also, he now hears all speech in his native language, which means he now understands all languages. He can't turn this off. This doesn't apply to anything written down.
Divine Mind Shield: A blessed ward granted to William from the demi-goddess of torture Cassandra Remi during the Night of Debauchery. The ward taps into the raging storm of soul fragments within William to protect him from mental and psychic abilities. Any mental or psychic contact causes feedback from the cacophony of souls within William. The feedback depends on the level of contact. Light contact like telepathic communication causes a headache or other light effect while a psionic blast attack causes a mental hammer blow equivalent to half the strength of the attack back on the attacker. Mental shielding can reduce but not abate these effects.
Destructive Enlightenment: Having completed Jomil’s test at Icehenge, William was granted insight into his destructive nature by the Goddess. This ability is both a blessing and a curse for William, as everything he looks at decays in his sight, showing him the inherent weakness and impurities in objects that may be exploited. After finding the weak spots in something, William is able to understand the best way to overcome that object. William can find weak spots in non-living material with a glance and living material with a post of study. When used against a character William is able to understand that character's current defenses and what it takes to overcome them. This ability cannot be turned off.
Soul Bound: William was turned into the Revenant by binding souls to him. Because of this his powers are spiritual in nature, not magical. Abilities that alter, affect, or defend against magical effects will do nothing against William’s abilities. Abilities that alter, affect, or defend against spiritual effects work as normal.
Soul Trap: Because of the spiritual energies bound into him, William’s soul acts as a snare for anything he kills. William lived much of his life not realizing that he naturally consumes a portion of energy from everything he kills, making them a part of him. The portion he consumes is not enough to prevent any sort of resurrection or healing for slain enemies, but it cannot be recovered or removed in any way as it is inextricably bound to him. Thus anything that William kills, even in the Citadel, has a portion of their essence consumed and strengthens him. He doesn't gain any of the absorbed creature's power or abilities through use the this.
Fluid Form: William has learned to master the transformation between the various amalgamated soul fragments within himself. Originally this was reserved simply for his original form and his so-called war form. Now that William has learned the truth of his nature, he is able to shift his appearance to that of any soul-fragment bound to him. Because he has killed so many people and creatures over the years, William can transform to appear as nearly any age, race, or gender. William can also appear in a variety of monstrous or inhuman forms, though he cannot gain or lose a significant amount of mass and is thus limited to things he has killed which are roughly the same size as himself. William gains no inherent powers that the forms he shifts into may have possessed. William has no limit to how many times he can switch forms but can only switch forms once per post.
Spirit Form (formerly War Form): In addition to changing his appearance via his fluid form ability (above), William also has his a true spirit form. This form does nothing on its own but will affect other abilities. William has no limit to how many times he can switch to this form.
Carapace: While in Spirit Form only. While in Spirit Form there is a dark carapace like charcoal that covers William’s arms from his elbows down to his fingertips, ending in wickedly sharp claws. This carapace covers his legs from his knees to his toes, which also end in pointed, razor-sharp talons. Finally, carapace also covers his head in a skull-like helmet with sharp, fanged bladed teeth.
Legendary Strength – William’s has killed and consumed so many creatures that his strength is rivalled only by creatures of myth and the gods themselves. He can crush stone to powder, tear steel apart like paper, and even crush mythril with ease. He has innate (10) level strength.
Enhanced Endurance (formerly Enhanced Toughness, broken into two parts with Enhanced Defense based on the new game logic rules): William’s power, focus, and familiarity with pain means has increased to the point where his stamina is at the super strong (8) level. By now, William can take several serious wounds and continue to fight, his determination and reliance on his healing abilities allowing him to fight through the pain.
Enhanced Speed: William’s superhuman form is enhanced so much that he moves with somewhat strong (5) level speed. This means that he can run at blinding speeds, can dodge slower attacks with ease, and can avoid most missile attacks that he is aware of purely on reflex.
Enhanced Defense (formerly Enhanced Toughness, broken into two parts with Enhanced Endurance based on the new game logic rules): When shifted into his spirit form (see above) the bone carapace covering William’s arms, legs, and head (see above) are hard as dehlar (tier 5 metal).
Enhanced Healing: William’s physique repairs damage done to his physical form. Minor and moderate wounds can be healed within seconds and serious wounds within minutes. Healing times for lethal wounds take anywhere from an hour to a day, depending on the type and severity. (ie. A stab through the heart can take an hour, pulling his heart out would incapacitate him for several hours, bodily disintegrating him would require roughly a day to pull himself back together)
Blazing Aura (formerly part of Molten Core and Magic Void): While in Spirit Form only. While in his spirit form, William’s power is so great that it exudes from him in an aura that affects the world around him. Within 5-feet of William the air shimmers around like a desert mirage. At this range unprotected skin will dry to the point of cracking, eyes dry to stinging blindness, and prolonged exposure can cause first and second degree burns. Magic is greatly weakened this close to William’s Magic Void and he can direct the aura to break down and nullify static magical effects with concentrated effort. The aura also saps life energy from those standing in it, leaving them in an exhausted, emotionless, lethargic state. Only the most powerful regenerative abilities will function and even then at a severely reduced level.
Elemental Defense (formerly part of Molten Core): William burns so hot that he is immune to fire and highly resistant to cold-based attacks.
Magic Void: Because of his magic cursed spirit, William is unable to learn magic of any sort. Magic Void halves magic effects directed at him. There is a chance (25%) of instantaneous effects (most combat magic) to be completely cancelled out as it is consumed by the magic void in William’s soul.
Molten Core: While in Spirit Form only. The power that flows through William’s body in place of blood is potent, corrupting, and destructive. Light flammable items (paper, thin wood, light non-special fabrics, etc.) that come into contact with William’s blood will start to burn and larger items become more and more warped and corroded blood (metal dulls and rusts, leather becomes worn and faded, clothing becomes threadbare, etc.) the longer they are exposed. On skin, William’s blood is powerful enough to cause third degree burns if left unattended.
Blazing Touch (formerly Burning Attacks): While in Spirit Form only. William can draw the power of his Blazing Aura (see above) into himself and focus it directly into his carapace. William’s carapace becomes wreathed in molten fire, like lava. William’s touch can easily char a creature to the bone if held long enough. When using Blazing Touch, William loses the effect of Blazing Aura.
Magma Shot: While in Spirit Form only. William has learned to coalesce and project the spiritual power within him. He can manifest a Magma Shot four times per day. The Magma Shot is a ranged projectile that does heavy, explosive damage to a small 5-foot area. Instead of throwing the projection, William can focus it inwards and create a more powerful blast centered on himself. This takes two uses of the ability and creates a magma explosion centered on William which extends 10-feet in all directions and does extreme levels of explosive fire damage.
Equipment:
Tome of Kal’Necroth: The tome of ancient magic that Kal’Necroth used to create William’s revenant body. William has finally gained all the translations that he needs and has begun to understand pneumancy (soul magic), though he can’t use it himself. It is highly resistant to heat and is waterproof. He keeps it bound to him by bundling it up in the nearly unbreakable Slave Chain (see below), a form of symbolic turn-around towards the man who made him.
Slave Chain: This golden chain looks thin enough to be broken easily but is deceptively strong. The chain has two shackles at either end, one for a master and one for a slave. Anyone shackled to the slave end of the chain is rendered completely subservient to the person shackled into the master’s side. (Player permission required.)
Deadwood Rod: This bone white wood has the same strength and toughness as Akashiman Redwood (Tier 6) and is fashioned from the wood of a special grove a day’s march north of the town of Underwood. This rod has been fashion by William though his Woodcutting into a masterwork haft of an axe, though no head has been fitted yet. Its special nature means that it absorbs blood that it comes into contact with. The wood becomes warmer as more blood is absorbed, and can grow hot enough to burn bare skin if enough blood is fed into it. This wood is also highly susceptible to magical enchantment, using its stored blood reserves to fuel any magic enhancement placed on it.
Skin of the Beast: The Beast Hide cloak serves to shrug off most light to moderate piercing and slashing attacks. Heavy or concentrated attacks will penetrate the skin, and it does nothing to deter blunt force attacks.
Warscythe of the Storm Herald: A single blade runs down the top third of this obsidian weapon which, despite its appearance, is composed of the same living stone that the Storm Herald himself is and is as light and strong as mythril. A potent weapon in its own right, the true power of this scythe becomes apparent when the wielder activates it, causing small discharges of green electrical power to arc from the weapon as the blade glows with a sickly green light. Twice per day, when activated, the blade can cut through any low level barrier (bone, light magic guards, or up to steel) and once per day it can cut through an advanced barrier (heavy magic guards and up to mythril). After all three attacks have been used the warscythe’s abilities cannot be used again until the next day.
The Aegis: The Aegis is a prevalida (Tier 9) strength armored breastplate that is intricately etched and infused with the heart’s blood of an ancient dragon. The blood has stained the breastplate so dark a red that it is almost black, though the etched lines catch the light in such a way that the illuminated blood inside flares a bright red, making the whole surface shimmer in twisting patterns. The breastplate binds the aura of the wearer to the equipment the owner wears, making all of the wearer’s equipment immune to all of their own abilities.
Dragon Eye Locket: A small golden pendant forged into the shape of an open, staring dragon eye. The pendant can be worn on a chain or attached to armor and has been enchanted to allow the user to create an illusion over their clothes and armor. This illusion is limited to changing the color, appearance, and other minor details of the user’s armor and clothing. The illusion does not allow the user to appear to appear to be wearing armor that they aren’t actually wearing.
The Carver: Made from the ancient dragon bone of Moonwing, this large cleaver has a long flat blade that ends in a cruel curve. Along the back of the blade runes have been used to try to contain the power inside, but they are only partially effective. By running a finger across these runes the wielder can release a dozen spectral blades the same size and shape as the Carver to appear. These blades twist and curve through the air, cutting through anything that they come into contact with. The effect at close range is catastrophic, with nearly everything surrounding the wielder to be exposed to the blades. Ten meters out, the blades disappear. This ability can be used twice a day with a minimum of three of the wielder’s posts between uses. The spectral blades are considered prevaldia (Tier 9) strength and are not able to be directed or controlled once released. The Carver changes size so that it is always a two-handed sword, and runs from the wielder’s shoulder to the ground.
Trophies: (these items have been earned but will never be used and will not be sold due to IC reasons)
Jerkiest Beef Jerkey: A small length of dragon meat that has been jerked to perfection. An unusual side effect of jerking magical meat is that it regrows into its original form a day after eating. If the eater wanted to be a jerk themselves, he or she could also spit the meat at someone. The spices and chili used to jerk the meat erupt upon spitting, causing a small foot-sized chili-cloud that causes considerable irritation to eyes and noses should it reach someone’s face.
Rime-Bound Cup: Awarded to William for winning the Rime Bound Cup contest. The cup is an iron trophy permanently encrusted in a layer of ice, which can be broken off in little stalagmites which constantly reform and the ice never melts whilst it’s touching the cup. It is thus a source of water, comfort, and kool-aid support wherever it is taken.
The Lindquist Crown: A steel helmet with side guards, nasal guards, and winged vestiges on either side. It has been restored to its previous polish and shine and is almost angelic in appearance. It has a similar design to those worn by the Knights of Brae, only more archaic and detailed. It has the following abilities, usable once per thread (abilities must be used purely for the benefit or salvation of Scara Brae and its citizens).
- Aura of Command: May rally and order City Guard or Knights of Brae to William’s side and allegiance. In battle this may summon two ghostly city guard, equipped with iron weapons and armor, for one post, or one Knight of Brae equipped with steel plate armor, sword, and shield for the duration of one post.
- Light of Lindquist: May sprout angelic wings to glide or descend as if avian and at double speed (not usable in battle).
- Pulsar: Can emit a blast of light that emanates from the crown and extends in a 20-foot circle and which repels evil spirits, undead, and demons who are weaker than the wearer.
